The Read: Talking about writing

Don't be put off by that academic word -- symposium -- or the academic setting: Point Loma Nazarene University.

The 17th annual Writer's Symposium By the Sea, Monday through Wednesday, is for intellectuals and the merely curious alike, a chance to hear top-notch authors discuss their work.

This year's roster is highlighted by Dave Eggers, best known for the memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and "What Is The What," a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He'll be at Crill Performance Hall on campus Wednesday at 6 p.m., answering questions from Dean Nelson, a Point Loma Nazarene journalism professor.

Eggers doesn't do many interviews so this is a rare chance to hear him talk about his craft and his various projects, which include screenwriting and editing the San Francisco-based literary journal McSweeney's.

On Tuesday at 7 p.m., also at Crill, former war correspondent Chris Hedges will answer questions from Nelson. Hedges was part of a team who won a Pulitzer for the New York Times in 2002 for their reporting on global terrorism. He left the paper after he was reprimanded for publicly denouncing the decision to launch the war against Iraq.

Now a columnist for the website Truthdig and a senior fellow at the Nation Institute in New York, a nonprofit media center, Hedges is the author of 11 books. His "War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning" was also a finalist for the book critics award.

Look for the U-T interview with Hedges on Sunday in the newspaper and online. A favorite quote from the interview: "War is the most potent narcotic invented by humankind."

The symposium includes workshops with local true-crime author Caitlin Rother and literary agents Elise Capron and Andrea Cavallaro. For more information and to order tickets, go here.